Neither Stanford's Owen Marecic nor Cal's Shane Vereen will necessarily say a lot about himself, but each will say a lot about the other.

In fact, "says a lot about" became the phrase of choice in Monday phone interviews with the running backs.

Marecic said Vereen isn't "flashy in how he conducts himself but he's very good at what he does. I guess he lets his performance speak for itself and it really says a lot about him."

Vereen noted that Marecic played both fullback and linebacker for the Cardinal, "which says a lot about not just who he is as a player but who he is as a person, how strong and strong-willed he is."

The two have gotten to know each other over the past three months as they've prepared for this week's NFL draft. They met at the combine in Indianapolis in February and spent some time together last Wednesday when the 49ers held a workout for local draft prospects.

The draft prospects for Vereen seem a bit better than Marecic's. No accredited university offers a "mock draft" major, so trusting mock drafts can provide a cautionary tale. That said, Vereen projects to go in the third or fourth round (though he said he has heard as high as the second) and Marecic appears slotted for rounds 5 or 6.

"I think it's going to be just a humongous, emotional thing going through my mind," Vereen said, "because I finally accomplished a goal that I set for myself the first time I put cleats on and played football."

That would be when he was 7 years old. In December, Vereen graduated from Cal with a degree in media studies. He's at his home in Southern California.

Marecic - a major contributor to the Cardinal's 12-1 record last season - remains on the Stanford campus as he's finishing his final quarter before graduating with a degree in human biology. Last week, Marecic was one of 10 winners of Stanford's deans' award for academic accomplishment.

Achieving in class hasn't diverted Marecic's focus on the draft.

"I've had it circled on the calendar for a long time, you could say for a lifetime," he said.

One advantage Marecic believes he received from playing four years for former head coach Jim Harbaugh and his staff: "They really stressed that preparation is the key to success," Marecic said. "That was almost our badge of honor. ... Hopefully, that's been ingrained in me over the last four years here; that it's the work behind the scenes that really wins the prize."

Vereen thinks having played for Cal gives him an edge because of what he learned from running backs coach Ron Gould - Vereen calls Gould "one of the best, if not the best, running back coaches in the nation, hands down" - and from what Vereen calls "the complexity" of the Bears' offense.

As the draft approaches, Vereen is "just waiting and being anxious and nervous and excited and all that stuff."

Marecic said, "I'm not known for having the best communication but I'll be on top of my game at the end of the week."

Those last two statements say a lot about what the draft means to Owen Marecic and Shane Vereen.

Bay Area prospects

Six mock-draft websites - Sports Illustrated, Sporting News, WalterFootball, DraftSite, Drafttek and NFL Draft 101 - provide the basis for this list of Cal and Stanford players who probably will be selected Thursday, Friday or Saturday: